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StartUp Bus leaves Nashville, hopes to find road to success

By Jamie McGee, jmcgee@tennessean.com;
10:48 a.m. CST March 2, 2014

Participant David Gilmore, right, talks about being on the Nashville Startup Bus before it leaves for San Antonio carrying teams of coders and entrepreneurs aiming to build new businesses or ideas.
(Photo:
Sanford Myers / The Tennessean
)

Their mission: create several meaningful products or services during the roughly 72-hour road trip to San Antonio and compete against six other StartupBus teams driving in from regions across North America.

“I was looking for a good opportunity to get out of the Nashville community of startups and plug into the greater ecosystem in the country,” said participant Grayson Carroll, CEO and developer at Nashville startup Poliana. “This seemed like an awesome way to do that while also having a crazy adventure across the country.”

The competition is scheduled to coincide with the South by Southwest (SXSW) conference and festival held in Austin, Texas, and many of those on board the StartupBuses will attend the conference following their road trip competition.

Under a tight timeframe, the competition was scheduled to begin as soon as the Nashville bus left the Entrepreneur Center parking lot close to 7:30 a.m. Sunday. Those with an idea are asked to pitch and then teams form based on interest levels. The teams will present their products to investors Wednesday morning in San Antonio, with winners determined after a finals round on Thursday, said bus leader and Nashville investor Steve Repetti.

Along the way, the Nashville bus will stop in Chattanooga; Birmingham, Ala.; Memphis; Jackson, Miss.; Baton Rouge, La.; and Houston, meeting with investors and mentors at startup centers along the way to refine their products.

The StartupBus began in 2010, created by entrepreneur Elias Bizannes, and the first bus traveled from San Francisco to SXSW. The concept has spread to other regions since, with departure cities this year including Guadalajara, Mexico, Kansas City, Mo., Seattle, New York, San Francisco and Tampa Bay, Fla.

This is Repetti’s third StartupBus experience, having traveled with the inaugural group in 2010, and he describes the trip as a “startup weekend with no walls.” His goal is gain exposure for startup activity in the Southeast region and he envisions the next StartupBus event ending in Nashville in conjunction with the Southland entrepreneur conference, he said.

“We are looking to reinforce this area,” he said. “By the same token, we want to win.”

The purpose of the trip extends beyond the four-day competition. The idea is to connect those with software skills and entrepreneurial aspirations who could continue to develop ideas together in the next few years, said Vic Gatto, who helped organize and sponsor the trip through the startup accelerator program, Jumpstart Foundry.

“Maybe that’s starting a new company or building an app for a non-for-profit on this bus,” he said. “I think connecting really talented people together is something our city needs to do more of.”

The majority of those on the Nashville bus have coding skills so that actual products get built, and most came from across Tennessee, with a few “buspreneurs” from cities including Indianapolis and Dallas. Some participants said they had ideas ready to pitch while others came to join other groups and help build the products.

“I brought two white boards, seven dry erase (markers), my laptop and a few changes of clothes,” said David Gilmore, a Nashville software developer. “Oh, and a box of pizza.”